Watch Your Heart When We're Together
by plainkidsister
Summary: McCoy/Chapel, Kirk. Christine Chapel is always shaking her ass to get them out.


written in the same 'verse as_ i shot an arrow into the air_. no warnings except: a little flirtation, McCoy calls someone a "hussy" and Jim Kirk isn't an honest man.

no ownership.

* * *

"Christine?"

She turns around to find Jim Kirk poking his head through her formerly sterile curtain, teeth catching his bottom lip. He's fluttering his lashes and she narrows her eyes, gloved hands stilled on a bloody bandage.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Can I talk to you? Just for a minute." He glances at the communications officer, a young girl who smiles shyly, and winks. "It won't take long, Nurse."

Before she can protest, another nurse is replacing her hands, tightening the bandage and Christine pulls off her gloves and tosses them into the biohazard container. Her feet prickle as she steps out of the curtain, looking around for that annoying distraction. He's leaning against the nurses' station, messing with some files and she approaches him, smacking the hand that's extended. He feigns pain and she clears her throat. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yep." He stands up and leans in closely. "Just letting you know that I've signed your boyfriend and I up for a purely political trip to Betazed."

She nods, clearly not enthused. "Oh, really? Congratulations."

"_And_," he raises his voice, "it's going to include costumes."

"You know Leonard has never really -"

He holds up a hand to stop her. "Don't call him Leonard. It makes him sound…refined."

She shakes her head, admitting defeat and deciding to call it fair. "I appreciate you coming down, in person, _at my job_, to tell me."

"You're welcome," he grins, "just doing my friendly duty. Oh, and Christine?"

Christine Chapel isn't sure her brows can any get any higher on her forehead. "Yes?"

"Keep your comm on you while we're down there."

This harmless outing Jim Kirk is planning has now been upgraded to serious issue to Christine's instincts and she shoves her hand hard into his chest, stopping him in his tracks. "You need to start being honest. Right now."

"I am." She's only been his friend for a few weeks now and it's oh-so-clear when he lies to her. His mouth twitches slightly and she glares.

"Okay," he lets out a puff of air, defeated, "we may or may not be intercepting an interplanetary smuggling drop-off. And we may or may not be dressing as cowboys."

"Cowboys?" She purses her lips to keep from giggling. If she giggles, she loses him and he no longer wilts under her piercing gaze.

"Yes," he sighs, "with the hats and everything." He frowns, taking her hands in his. "Please don't be mad."

"I'm not mad!" She snatches her hands away from his grasp. "But you know what's going to happen?"

"What?" The mouth twitches again and Christine's cheeks grow hot with annoyance.

"You two are going to end up getting caught." She pokes him hard. "And I'm going to have to shake my ass at somebody to get you out."

The smile spreads slow across Jim's face and he shrugs. "That's why we love ya, honey."

"I'll be monitoring your frequencies!" She shouts as he turns on her, whistling his way out of Sickbay. She straightens her tunic and tries to keep her mind off of the fact she'll be beaming down to Betazed in not much more than chaps and a bustier in a few hours' time.

-

A few hours turns into a few days and Christine is being laced up when Scotty runs into her quarters, breathless and face red. "Nurse, are you ready?"

"I was born ready." She shakes her curls and Scotty only gives her a once over before leading her down to the transporter room.

The place is rank, dingy and wet and she jumps when something neighs in her ear. It's not quite a horse, but smells and sounds like one. The little buildings are like something out of the very deep past, plain and made of wood, with names scrawled across the side. She recognizes a "General Store" and a "Saloon" and can't help but giggle at this whole mess.

Most of her loves these little trysts Jim gets them into, where she saves them by flashing a little cleavage (well, a _lot_, if you count the incident with the Klingons and the foam) or winking suggestively. Jim and Leonard can't stay out of trouble together, as much as Leonard tries, and she finds it exciting in her own way. It's the kind of thing she and Jim spend time reliving and giggling about, and the secret she whispers into Leonard's chest when they're spooning, sweaty and sated. She knows he feels the same because he only kisses her heartily and they stop spooning to do more interesting things.

Christine looks around for "Sheriff" and finds it easily, winking at every man she passes. Some don't bat an eye while others shift, black eyes following her. She's coaching her mind into a nice lull, focusing on sex rather than how uncomfortable she feels in this outfit.

The Sheriff's office is dark and a deputy sits behind a desk, feet propped up and snoring. He's a young Betazoid, handsome and Christine thanks whatever being above that it will be easy to coax him into compliance.

"Excuse me?" She sits on the edge of the desk, and nudges his feet with a finger. He wakes and sits up straight, black eyes widening as he takes her in. She opens her mind to him and he swallows, obviously rocked by her appearance and thoughts and fumbles with his papers.

"May I help you?"

"I'm lookin' for a few of my friends." She adds the Southern lilt for good measure, thinking she'll never get away with it anywhere else except Leonard's bedroom, and the deputy stands.

"A blonde and brunette?" His tone is colder than she likes.

"Of course," she smiles, "Idiots, the both of them."

The deputy gives a watery smile and motions for her to follow him into the next room. The room is much larger and has a few jail cells lined against the back wall, each dark except for one. She notices Kirk and Leonard reclining, head down and hat pulled over his eyes. He looks like a true cowboy, scruff dark against his jaw and his hands are resting on his belly, fingers laced together.

Christine ignores the chill spreading down her spine to look back at the deputy who has seated himself behind another desk. She bites her bottom lip, trotting over where the deputy leans back in his chair, and sits on the edge of the desk. "So, you run this place?"

"Mostly." He removes his hat and she looks back at Jim and Leonard. They're looking at her steadily, cool as cucumbers, laid back on the pallets in the cell. Christine cocks a brow and feels the deputy crowd her personal space.

"I'd be interested to know what my boys did to deserve this kinda treatment," she murmurs, absently tracing patterns with a painted nail on the desk top.

"Well," the deputy adjusts his heavy belt, "they were caught snooping around the saloon. Asking too many questions."

She giggles, moving her finger from the desk to start tracing the back of the deputy's hand. "Bad boys, huh?"

"_Very_ bad boys." His voice dips and his eyes never leave her mouth as she pokes out her tongue to lick them slowly. His own lips part, sucking in slow breaths and she smiles.

"Well, how about you just let me bring them back home and teach them a very hard lesson?"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." He tries to muster up some sternness in his voice but falters when she drags a nail between her breasts, watching the way his eyes widen when the same finger taps his chin.

"Aw," she coos, "I'm harmless. Tell your boss they roughed you up and there was nothing you could do about it." The finger taps his lips. "Works out for the both of us."

He leans in to connect his mouth with hers but she draws herself away, standing up from the desk and backs up to Kirk and Leonard's cell. The deputy follows, keys jingling with each step, and her back hits the iron bars with a loud clang.

"Woman -" Leonard's cursing breath is warm against her shoulder and his fingers tug at the laces on her back in annoyance. She ignores him in favor of grinning at the deputy, whose hands grips the iron bars just above her head. While his eyes close and his nose descends to sniff her hair, she eyes the keys on his belt. The cell key must be the large, wrought-iron one dangling from the bottom of the large ring of glittering gold keys, farthest from her reach.

She reaches tentatively but he lifts his head from its devotion to her hair in favor of ghosting along the skin of her collarbone. She tries again but Leonard is growling behind her, bruising her back with his tugs and she jerks angrily from his grip.

"Something wrong?" The deputy keeps his eyes closed, still reveling in her scent, and she reaches again for the keys.

"Oh no. Just givin' you a better angle, darlin'." The ring unhooks from his belt loop and she draws it nearer to the bars when his eyes shoot open.

Panic hits her and she crashes her lips to his, trying to shove the keys through the bars. The deputy pulls away to stop the inevitable but falls back when Jim shoves the cell open and kicks the kid in the gut.

Leonard hoists her up in one fell swoop, throwing her over his back and they run out of the jail and into the center of town.

"Christine, you hussy," Leonard hisses under his breath and she grins to herself as the familiar woozy feel of transporting envelopes her and his hand descends on her backside.

-

"So, how much did you love that?" Christine snickers, tossing the bustier aside in favor of her favorite cotton nightgown. She unpins her hair and curls tumble, not quite sweeping her shoulders and she shakes her head to loosen them. Her lips are still stained red, no matter how hard she scrubs them but they look brilliant against her white teeth so she smiles at her reflection.

"It was ridiculous and insane," Leonard emerges from the bathroom, costume draped over his arm and scrubbing his damp head with a towel. "And I don't approve of you kissing other men, even if my ass is in jail."

"Oh, you have to admit it was fun." She turns and he stops scrubbing, distracted by the sheerness of her nightgown.

He finally looks up and raises a brow. "Nothing about that was fun. Stuck in a small space with Jim for two days is my own personal hell."

"Surely you jest." She pokes him in the chest and he leans down to kiss her, chastely at first and then deeply, tongue tracing the curve of her teeth. She pulls away against his tiny groan of protest and adds, "Don't I get a reward?"

"For what?" He pushes a curl behind her ear and lets his thumb pet her bottom lip.

"For busting you out of jail. Shouldn't I get something for that?"

"You want credits?" He kisses the apple of her cheek, then nips gently at her earlobe.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of - sexual?"

He pauses before biting the spot where her neck and shoulder join, eliciting a tiny moan from the back of her throat. "What did you have in mind?"

"That cowboy hat." She grins when he draws away and looks at her strangely.

"And?"

"The vest."

"Anything else?"

She steps back to the bed and sits down softly, crossing her legs. "The chaps."

"Honey, that sounds like a lot of clothes for the kind of reward you're talking about -"

"Oh?" She leans back onto her elbows, blonde eyebrows quirked at their finest. "Did I mention you won't be wearing anything else?"

Leonard McCoy manages one small smile before disappearing into the bathroom, snatching the cowboy hat from the bed.


End file.
